Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

September 3

1993
Chimp beats brokers: After a month long contest in which a Swedish newspaper pitted a chimpanzee against five stock analysts to see who could earn the most on a $1,250 investment, the chimp had earned $190, as compared the stockbrokers best of $130. The chimp picked his stocks by throwing darts.

1992
Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos debuts featuring people and animals having sex. It was cancelled after 34 minutes.

1976
Viking II lands on the surface of Mars.

1972
Mark Spitz wins his sixth 1972 Olympic gold medal, the record for any one Olympiad. He went on to win a seventh.

1967
Right-Hand Drive: At 6:00 a.m., Swedish drivers stop driving on the left-hand side of the road and begin driving on the right.

1964
Youngest person to swim the English Channel, 14-year-old Lenore Modell from the U.S.

1951
Search For Tomorrow debuts on TV.

1950
Beetle Bailey: The comic strip debuts on creator Mort Walker's 26th birthday.

1939
World War II: England declares war on Germany after the German invasion of Poland two days earlier.

1833
New York Sun: The first issue of New York's first penny paper is published.

1813
Uncle Sam: The first known use of the term in print referring to the U.S. government is used in a Troy, New York newspaper.

1783
The American Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

1965
Charlie Sheen (Carlos Estevez), American actor. Film: Platoon (1986) and Wall Street (1987).

1943
Valerie Perrine, American actress. Film: Slaughterhouse Five (1972) and Lenny (1974, Lenny's wife).

1942
Al Jardine, American singer, with The Beach Boys. Music: Surfin' USA (1963), I Get Around (1964, #1), Help Me Rhonda, (1965, #1), and Good Vibrations (1966, #1).

1935
Eileen Brennan, American Emmy-winning actress. TV: Private Benjamin (Capt. Doreen Lewis).

1925     d. 1999
Wally Albright (Walton Algernon Albright, Jr.), American actor, one of the Little Rascals, appeared in six Our Gang films (1934, Wally). Won the Men's National Track and Ski Championship (1957).

1923
Mort Walker (Addison Mortimer Walker), American cartoonist, creator of Beetle Bailey (1950) and Hi and Lois (1954).

1915
Kitty Carlisle, American actress, singer. TV: To Tell the Truth (panelist).

1913     d. 1964
Alan Ladd, American actor. Film: This Gun for Hire (1942) and The Great Gatsby (1949).

1905     d. 1905
Carl David Anderson, American physicist. He discovered the positron (1932) for which he shared the 1936 Nobel Prize. He and his graduate student, Seth Neddermeyer, discovered the muon (1936, originally called mu-meson).

1902     d. 1973
Mantan Moreland, American actor. Film: The Charlie Chan movies (Chan's chauffeur Birmingham Brown).

1856     d. 1924
Louis Henri Sullivan, American architect, creator of the skyscraper.

1850     d. 1895
Eugene Field, American author. Poems: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (1888) and Little Boy Blue (1888).

2003     b. 1923
Alan Dugan, American Pulitzer-winning poet (1962).

1970     b. 1913
Vince Lombardi, American football coach. He won the first two Superbowls and led Greenbay to five NFL championships. The Superbowl trophy is named in his honor.

1924     b. 1843
Adam Willis Wagnalls, American publisher, co-founder of Funk & Wagnalls Company (1891), who first published their famous dictionary in 1912.

1658     b. 1599
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England. He led "the curse of Cromwell," in which he massacred the Irish during an extensive expropriation of their land. He also outlawed Christmas celebrations in England, calling them an extreme forgetfulness to Christ.

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